Policy Life Cycle Analysis of Three Australian tate
– level Public Policies : Exploring the Political
Dimension of Sustainable Development

By Dr. Kuntal Goswami & Prof. Rolf Gerritsen

This article analyses the life cycle of three Australian public policies (Tasmania Together [TT],South Australia’s Strategic Plan[SASP,] and Western Australia’s State Sustainability Strategy [WA’s SSS]). These policies were formulated at the state leveland were structured around sustainable development concepts (the environmental, economic, and social dimensions). This studyhighlights contexts that led to the making of these public policies, as well as factors that led to their discontinuation. The casestudies are based on analysis of parliamentary debates, state governments’ budget reports, publicagencies’ annual reports,government media releases, and stakeholders’ feedback. The empirical findings highlight the importance of understanding thepolitical dimension of sustainable development. This fact highlights the need to look beyond the traditional three-dimensionalview of sustainability when assessing the success (or lack thereof) of sustainable development policies. Equally important, theanalysis indicates that despite these policies’ limited success (and even one of these policies not beingimplemented at all),sustainability policies can have a legacy beyond their life cycle. Hence, the evaluation of these policies is likely to provide insightinto the process of policymaking.

Keywords: Policy life cycle analysis, policy legacy, political dimension of sustainable development

Goswami, K. and Gerritsen R. (2021) ‘Policy Life Cycle Analysis of Three Australian State-level Public Policies:Exploring the Political Dimension of Sustainable Development’, Journal of DevelopmentPolicy and Practice, 6(1), pp.9–35.https://doi.org/10.1177/2455133321998805